The Little Truck That Could, 1995 Ford Ranger A plain Jane little short bed two wheel drive Ford Ranger bought in April, 1995, in El Paso, Texas from Shamaley Ford. It was a replacement for a beautiful 1985 Ford T-Bird that was ruined by a mechanic whose reach exceeded his grasp. We will have more on about this tragic chain of events later. The Ranger’s engine was the 2.3-liter four banger. It had a five speed transmission, power brakes standard, no power steering, no radio, no power windows, no power…

Folks, Everyday I go for a walk around downtown Phoenix during my lunch hour. I do not often, actually never, talk to anybody I see. I just walk and look at the cars and all the construction going on around me. But not yesterday. While eating at the Coney Island I struck up a conversation with a guy (about my age wearing a security guard uniform ) about how good and healthy his chicken salad looked. He proceeded to tell me that he has a 50% clogged artery and needs to…

The worst vehicle I ever owned was not a car. It was not a truck either. What was it? It was a van. A Ford van. A 1978 Ford Club Wagon (Econoline) van. But it was not a delivery van. It was a passenger van. Yes, back in the 70s, even after the 73 and 78 gas crises (shortages), it became acceptable for families with young children to buy Ford, Chevy or Dodge vans as passenger vehicles. And, boy, did I fall into that trap. Every aspect of the ownership…

Listener Challenges Radio Blowhard On May 14, 2008, Mando reported the following incident which we take to be an honest and accurate description of events: Saturday morning I was working in the garage listening to some local (Phoenix, Arizona) talk radio station. I was interested in the conversation because it was about gas mileage and the host said that he was an ASE certified mechanic with 35 years of auto repair and modification experience. Here is what he said: “I get 20 mpg from my 3/4 ton Sierra pickup. I…

The Lion of El Paso Tech One day I asked Mando how it was that he ended up attending El Paso Technical High School rather than my alma mater, El Paso High School. He gave the matter some thought and responded as follows: The Tech thing came down like this: In the seventh grade our class of thirtysome 12 years olds was transferred from Lamar (Grammar School on Montana Avenue) to Houston (Grammar School on Rio Grande Avenue) to make room for younger kids. They needed the room at Lamar…

SOMEWHERE WEST of LARAMIE RAM and the 1995 BMW 325is he drove to Texas. The car had recently been detailed, thus the brilliant sheen. Despite its age, the car has an on board computer that some say may have malfunctioned during the trip. Balderdash! Before the trip, the car had been taken to a body shop in Tijuana, Mexico to be customized to look like a 1950 Buick. In an amazingly quick turnaround, the shop delivered the modified car in two days with the fuel injected 2.5cc 6-cylinder, OHC engine…

The Maverick was a huge sales success. Nearly 579,000 units were produced in its first year. This rivaled the record-setting first year of Mustang sales (nearly 619,000), and easily outpaced the Mustang’s sales of less than 200,000 in 1970. <–From wikipedia. (By the way, the complete wikipedia entry is quite interesting and includes a lot of little known facts about the development and introduction of the Maverick)

Shown in the accompanying picture is The Lead Balloon, the small block Chevy powered ’41 Plymouth known in the late 60s and early 70s as the terror of West Texas. The actual, real car has vanished. It is quite probable that it does not exist anymore. If it is gone it is irreplaceable. If it still exists somewhere in the dusty plains of West Texas, may it rust in peace. The car has been so dearly missed and is so impossible to recreate as a real car that the Mickey…

Enrique (Henry) Munoz The SHOP‘S HUMBLE BEGINNINGS The ATASCADERO SPEED SHOP. Those four words can transport a tired old mind to a place far away, to a land and to times that still live in the hearts of the fortunate few who ventured there so long ago. To honor that place and those times, this site is dedicated to that speed shop and to its heroic founder, Henry Munoz.

The BEGINNING This is the sad story of a young man and a car, the car being the ’65 Barracuda pictured above. The photo was taken after the car had been disposed of- traded in on a 1966 Mustang GT- and was spotted parked by the roadside. Anyway, in the beginning, the young man (me), was driving a 1960 Ford Starliner with a 292 V-8 and a 3-speed Cruise-o-Matic automatic transmission.